It was not actually our anniversary - yet! We celebrated my in-law’s 50th anniversary the other night, but unfortunately none of their other children were able to make it. We took them out for dinner, just the four of us and them. We initially wanted to bring them to Seri Negara - the other, some might say the better, half of Carcosa Seri Negara. We got in the act rather late, hence the place was already fully booked with a corporate event.
The next choice was Shangri-La. Again, the places were already fully taken up. We had to settled with our usual Chinese eatery at Corus Hotel - used to be called Ming Court - the Ming Palace. Anita did the booking, but we let the happy couple do the ordering. The dinner was delayed by the unexpected heavier traffic than normal leading out of Jalan Ampang. The boys were already grumpy by the time we reached there.
The condiments
Idlan just about managing it with the chop sticksMing Palace serves mainly Szechuan cooking, but the thing we likes about the place is the fact that we can modify the orders if we like to and even order off menu. This is important so that the boys can get what they wanted to eat. Corus has a few other eateries, such as the Japanese and Thai downstairs. Therefore, if Puan Anita decided to sneak in some tom yam if she liked to, she can just order. No issue. The service was also very prompt and most of the waiters already knew my Dad-in-law from his various visits there entertaining his business clients. The lady who served us also remembered Idlan from his birthday dinner we had here last year.
The food for the boys arrived first, and after the finished up, there started to go hyper. I ended up having to chase them around the rest of the evening! Spoilt brats.
For starters, we had four season salad and crabmeat soup - I’m not a fan of shark fin. The best order for me that evening was the steamed cod. It was lightly marinated by soy sauce and some ginger, but otherwise left untouched. I ended up finishing it off and sipping the sauce. For dessert, we had longan and sea coconut. The ambiance was what you would expect from a decent, established Chinese restaurant, and so was the price. It was on the expensive side I must say. The service was prompt and the waiters certainly knew their menu and helped in making up our order.
The sea coconut and longanIt will not be fair to ask me whether we will come here again, since it is one of my in-law’s favourite joints. They have private rooms to accommodate business dinners, and family occasions. My children liked the privacy of the rooms. They can run around the table without the worry of knocking anything. As mentioned, the price was a bit on the steep side, but they do great seasonal discounts and good deals with credit cards payments - you get discounts of up to 20% with certain credit providers. But, no, I will not be taking friends here - it was far too expensive!
Friday, March 18, 2011 at 10:33PM 
